


sophia

by zigsexual (anythingbutloud)



Series: driam extended universe [4]
Category: The Royal Romance (Visual Novel)
Genre: M/M, disaster parent goodness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26382505
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anythingbutloud/pseuds/zigsexual
Summary: so. they have a baby now.
Relationships: Liam/Drake Walker, Maxwell Beaumont/Main Character (The Royal Romance)
Series: driam extended universe [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1917373
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	sophia

**Author's Note:**

> this is just absolute fluff brought on by the thought of liam being a dad (thanks to the royal heir for that one) and my headcanon family for future driam as per the deu (driam extended universe). its literally just fluff and also some riley and maxwell because lets be real i cant leave them out of anything.

It’s only been a few days, and yet Drake is certain he’s seen a year’s worth of change in both himself and Liam since they brought Sophia home.

It’s not just the expected neuroticisms, although those are certainly obstacles of their own. Drake’s already found a fully armed guard standing watch at their daughter’s crib on two separate occasions, and he had to actually step in when Liam attempted to call the Minister of Health at four in the morning because he couldn’t get Sophia to stop crying.

He’d foreseen the anxieties, the shifts in routine. It’s the love — the overwhelming, all-consuming love — that takes him by surprise. He’d heard time and time again how much one could love a child, and now he knows now exactly how true those words can be, but what he hadn’t foreseen was how much more he could love Liam.

That first night, Sophia in her bassinet by their bed, the two of them standing over her and marveling at her tiny features, Drake had wrapped his arm around Liam’s back and said, “I love you,” and he’d never meant it more in his life.

He lingers in doorways now, taking a moment to watch Liam with her before he knows anyone’s there. The way he smiles, the way he sings to her, the way his whole expression softens when she’s in his arms — Drake can’t get enough of it.

“She looks like you,” he tells Liam while they’re getting her dressed in the morning. Liam smiles, first at him, then at her.

“It’s just the hair,” he says, brushing a finger gently through the dark tufts atop her head.

“No,” Drake steps closer, watching as Sophia’s big eyes move to his face, one hand in her mouth. “It’s all of her. She looks like you.” He rests a hand on Liam’s shoulder, Liam leaning into him as he does. “And the world could always use more of you.”

Liam cries, because that’s pretty much all he does now.

The first people who come to visit, outside of family (and Drake had to put his foot down on that when Savannah tried to sneak Bertrand in), are Riley and Maxwell. They come with gifts and laughter and the noise of much more than just two people, already a crescendo of delight when they spot the new princess for the first time.

“Hey baby girl!” Riley grins, sweeping Sophia into her arms as soon as she’s within reach and kissing her forehead. “Look at you.”

Liam still isn’t good at letting anyone else hold her, perpetually terrified of what might happen if she’s not with them, so Drake squeezes his hand in reassurance when he notices his anxious fidgeting. Liam offers him a grateful smile.

Maxwell is at Riley’s side, looking down at Sophia with the same kind of wonder, the two of them falling into soft, cooing voices as she opens and closes her tiny hand.

Riley is entranced, tracing the skin of one plump cheek, eyes a bit damp. Maxwell looks back over at Liam and Drake, beaming. “If you ever need babysitters…”

“Trust me, you’ll be the first to know,” Liam says, although Drake is certain Liam would sooner abdicate the throne than leave his daughter’s side for a day. “Are the two of you considering having kids at all?”

Riley’s smile falters for the briefest second, and she lets her gaze fall back to Sophia’s face. Maxwell slips his arm around her almost protectively, answering with a practiced, “Nah, we’re a two-person job. Any more and we compromise the intel.”

He and Liam ask them to be the godparents, and Riley promptly bursts into the tears she’d been trying to keep at bay. “It was the obvious choice,” Liam says, another lie; they’d had a few arguments on whether or not Leo deserved the honor (he didn’t) and if Savannah would be offended for being passed over (she was, and when Drake had politely reminded her he didn’t want his daughter growing up in a broken home, she’d seethed that her and Bertrand were working it out).

At night, he and Liam sit on the edge of their bed and watch Sophia sleep, her lips a perfect pink bow, one hand curled into a fist. Every time she so much as breathes, it’s somehow amazing, Liam grabbing his hand at the slightest movement, enthralled.

“We did that,” he says, looking at Drake in awe. “That’s our baby.”

“Well, we didn’t entirely —”

“Oh, hush,” Liam admonishes, eyes still sparkling. “You know what I mean.”

“Yeah,” Drake answers, leaning in against Liam just a touch more, folding their fingers together a bit tighter. “I know.”

“I wish she could always see the world like this,” Liam says softly, “New and exciting and welcoming. I wish she didn’t have to grow up.”

“She’s got us,” Drake says, “She’ll have it pretty good.”

Liam smiles at him, presses a kiss to his forehead. “That’s true. She does have us.”

Warmth blooms in Drake’s heart, and he wraps his other arm around Liam’s back, resting his head on his shoulder. “What do you think she’ll be like?”

“I don’t know.” Liam thinks. “Stubborn, maybe?”

“Hey,” Drake lifts his head to shoot Liam a look of mock reproach. “Are you talking about her, or me?”

“Her, obviously,” Liam can’t help but smile. Drake makes a face at him.

“Well, if she ends up crying all the time, we’ll at least know which parent is notto blame.”

“I don’t cry all the time!”

“Just every day for the past nine months.”

Liam frowns, but it’s more of a pout than anything. “That doesn’t count — there were extenuating circumstances.”

Drake smiles, reaching his hand up to cup Liam’s cheek, thumb running slowly across his skin. “I love you.”

Liam raises an eyebrow. “Don’t try to distract me. It won’t work.”

“Shut up,” Drake shifts closer, eyes locked on Liam’s. “I am absolutely crazy about you.”

“What are you trying to do?” Liam asks, head tilted curiously to the side now.

“Nothing, I just…” Drake drops his hand, still looking out at Liam fondly. “I was just thinking… I mean, that’s our baby. You and me.” He folds his fingers back in against Liam’s, squeezing his hand. “There’s no one else I’d rather do this with.”

Liam kisses him, deep and slow until Drake pulls back, laughing. “Not in front of her!”

“She’s asleep,” Liam whispers, leaning back in to press another kiss to his jaw. “She’ll never know.”

“You’ll scar her for life,” Drake says, even as he tilts his head back when Liam’s hand comes up to his hair. “This is what she’ll talk about in therapy for years to come.”

“What a lucky therapist.”

“Liam!”

Liam sits back, smiling. “I love you too.”

Drake elbows him. “Stupid prince.”

“That’s you now, actually.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

Liam brings their joined hands up to his lips, pressing a kiss to Drake’s fingers as he says, “But you’re my stupid prince,” which somehow makes Drake feel disgustingly happy.

Sophia wakes up at 3AM that night, crying so loudly that the both of them jolt up immediately, wide-eyed and frantic. Liam hurries to get her bottle while Drake takes her in his arms, rocking her gently to no avail. When Liam returns, she’s still screaming, and Drake passes her off to him so he can try to coax the bottle into her mouth.

She fights against it at first, but then seems to settle into routine, her big round eyes watching them both closely as she drinks.

“Oh, thank god,” Drake says, reaching one arm around Liam while the other hand comes up to stroke her tufts of hair. Liam settles in against him, warm from sleep, blinking blearily.

“Knock on wood,” he manages, gently tilting the bottle back towards her when she bats at it with one small fist. “I suppose we’ll have to get used to the baby alarm clock sooner or later.”

“There are worse alarm clocks to have.”

Liam smiles, but Drake isn’t sure if it’s at him or at her, and he finds that he doesn’t mind it either way. Sophia’s eyes flick between the two of them, curious and bright, and he wonders what kind of thoughts her fledgling mind has to offer.

“Hey sweetheart,” he says, voice lowered slightly, marveling at the way her head fits in the palm of his hand. “Were you just hungry? Are you feeling better now?”

Her mouth goes slack around the bottle as she watches him, and Liam says, “Oh, she’s listening!” with so much unfettered joy that Drake can’t even find it within himself to tease him for it. Instead, he turns to Liam and grins, and Liam beams back at him like they’ve just cracked the secret to eternal happiness.

Sophia, now devoid of the attention she had previously been the center of, starts crying again, knocking her bottle onto the floor with one flailing arm.

“Shit,” The smile falls off Drake’s face. “We broke her.”

“What do we do?” Liam says, looking at him frantically, doing his best to try and rock Sophia back into some sort of complacency. She denies his every attempt, only wailing louder each time Liam tries to cuddle her quiet.

“Does she need to be changed?” Drake asks, and Liam says, “Oh god, I don’t know. When was the last time we changed her?”

They both wait for the other to offer the answer, but neither does.

“Christ,” Drake runs a hand through his hair anxiously. “We haven’t even had her a month and we’ve fucked it up.”

Liam looks pale. “Should I call her doctor?”

“What is he supposed to do?”

“Give her medicine?”

“For what?” Drake stares at him. “Crying?”

Liam stares back, a stunted sort of insanity across his features. “Yes.”

Drake takes a deep breath. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” He reaches towards Liam, arms outstretched. “Let me try.”

The second he gets close, Liam pulls away, leaning Sophia up against his shoulder with one hand on her back. “No. I can do this.”

“Come on, look at me,” Drake sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose as Sophia reaches a new decibel level. “She’s gonna wake up the whole palace, just let me —”

“I’m going to fix our baby,” Liam says firmly, eyes filled with a delirious determination. “We’re her parents, we’re supposed to know how to do this. I can do this.”

“Listen, babe, I’m sure you can, but what if I went and got her blanket, and we tried —”

Suddenly, Sophia lets out a profound burp before going quiet against Liam’s neck, sniffling into his shirt. They both stare at her for a moment, then at each other, blinking slowly.

“Well,” Liam says, “I think we fixed her.”

“She definitely threw up on you a little bit.”

“Did she?” Liam cranes his neck to the side, then frowns. “Oh, she did.”

“Casualties of war,” Drake laughs softly.

Liam passes Sophia over to him so he can head to the bathroom to clean up, and Sophia nestles against Drake’s chest as soon as he has her, one fat cheek pressed against him as she closes her eyes.

He rocks her gently, turning and watching as Liam shrugs off his shirt and turns on the sink faucet. “That’s your dad,” he whispers, not wanting to break her out of whatever spell sleep has cast on her. “He’s pretty great.”

He can feel her chest rise and fall against his, and he presses a kiss to the top of her head. “Actually, he’s the best. We’re lucky to have him, aren’t we?”

Liam emerges from the bathroom with tired eyes, yawning before he can stop himself. He runs a hand through his messed-up hair, his eyelids already heavy, and manages, “Do you want me to stay up with her…?”

“She’s asleep,” Drake says. “I think we’re out of the woods.”

“Perfect,” Liam answers, dropping a kiss against his temple as he passes. “Then let’s put her down and get back in bed.”

When Sophia is back in her bassinet, peaceful and still, Drake slips into the bed next to Liam and nestles against him, sighing softly when Liam drapes an arm over his shoulders.

“We’re good parents, right?” Drake asks Liam tentatively. “I mean, she’s going to grow up normal and everything?”

“Mhm,” Liam murmurs, too tired to assuage his fears. Drake rolls onto his back, staring up at the darkness of the ceiling for a long minute before he reaches across to hold Liam’s hand.

“We are,” Liam finally whispers, blinking his eyes open for just a second to meet Drake’s. “We’re great and she’s great and you’re the love of my life.”

Drake smiles, pulling Liam’s hand up and kissing his knuckles. “Goodnight, Liam.”

“Okay,” Liam says sleepily.

And, of course, not five minutes later, Sophia lets out a wail so loud one could swear it woke even the kitchen staff.


End file.
